What is the title of your latest release?
GELATO AT THE VILLA, Book #2 in the Suitcase Sisters collection
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Two long-time friends, Grace and Claire finally decide to stop reading about characters having adventures and plan their own, starting with a cooking class in Tuscany. In Northern Italy they discover the fairytale charm of Venice, the peace of the ancient countryside, and an abundance of art, beauty, gelato and pasta. While whispering what’s really on their hearts inside an unassuming chapel near Bellagio they soon see that God prepared a special gift for both of them. A gift they could only find by going to Italy.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
The first Suitcase Sisters novel is set in Kenya, TEA WITH ELEPHANTS, I chose to send the next two characters to another favorite corner of the world. I’ve been to Italy twice and as I wrote “Gelato at the Villa” I dreamed of going again.
Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Absolutely! Both Grace and Claire. I have lots in common with both of them.
What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Grace is refined, timid and loving. Claire is brave, creative and wounded.
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
Traveling in Italy is changing. Museums I visited for free now charge admission. If you don’t stay in a hotel in Venice, you must pay a day fee to enter during high tourist seasons. The High-Water seasons in Venice are rapidly increasing and there are predictions the city will be underwater sooner than previously expected.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I do both. Certain scenes that are challenging to get just right will come up in a jumble in the first draft. I leave it that way and keep going. A day or two later I go back and adjust the scene. Sometimes half a dozen times. When I turn in the book to the first round of editors I try to not continue rewriting in my head while they go through the whole manuscript. After I go through their notes, I do a final rewrite and turn it in. It’s not unusual for me to still tweak dialog as late as the final proofreading stage.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Lately it’s been carrot cake because my husband brought me a little one from a local bakery and it was the most delicious carrot cake I’d had in ages. For our rehearsal dinner his grandmother made a carrot cake and the one he found tasted a lot like hers.
Describe your writing space/office.
We live on the second floor in an apartment building. Out my office window I have a peek-a-boo view of the Pacific Ocean. I have a very comfy couch that is perfect for afternoon naps. My two bookcases are overflowing so I’m thinking of getting a third and placing it behind my desk. I have a large monitor that allows me to have lots of windows open and viewable at once. A helpful feature when writing and something that doesn’t work well on my laptop. There’s always instrumental music playing while I write.
Who is an author you admire?
I have long had an affection for Harriet Beecher Stowe. When she wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” she had no idea her story would help spark the Civil War that started nine years later. She wrote in the midst of raising and educating her children, dealing with limited finances, serious illness, death of her son his first year in college and wild opposition from those who hated her and her writing. And yet, she kept writing. She also traveled to Europe several times, had dinner with Queen Victoria and breakfast with Charles Dickens. She met Abraham Lincoln and one of her sons was wounded at Gettysburg. When the Civil War ended, she bought a plantation in Florida where she personally ran a school for over a hundred former slaves. The message in all her books was “God is love”.
Is there a book that changed your life?
The Bible. Truly. I have read through the Bible several times and read portions every day. I am always learning something new and often see something specific the Lord is nudging me to pay attention to.
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be
published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I’d written 14 children’s books when our two kids were little. Mostly for fun and because after the first series was published, I was invited to write more. The turning point that led me to write fiction happened on a camping trip with the teen girls in our church youth group. They were reading evocative romance novels that concerned me because they were only 13 years old. They challenged me to write for them and even told me what to write. Once the first Christy Miller YA novel was published (after 10 rejections) the doors opened wide for me to keep writing. Now, over 100 books later, the characters from the Christy Miller series are included in almost half of those novels.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
We lived on Maui for ten years when I expanded my collection of OP books on Hawaiian history. I love imagining what life was like on the islands 100 years ago and get excited whenever I learn something new about a prominent person during the monarchy. Every Christmas our son searches used book sites and finds some rare book about Hawaii and I spend the rest of the year reading it.
What’s your favorite movie?
When I wrote TEA WITH ELEPHANTS, I included a tour of Isak Dinesen’s home in Karen, near Nairobi. Her pen name was Karen Blixen and while researching her I was reminded of her book, “Babette’s Feast”. I bought the Danish movie and when I watched it again, after several decades since I first discovered it, I loved it just as much. What spoke to me is the way a woman extravagantly uses her unique skills to give a free gift to a group of unappreciative, critical and pious people. And yet, the gift changes them. As a writer, I’ve felt the same opposition and have also seen the same lasting effect of a story that gets into your gut.
What is your favorite season?
When we lived in the Pacific Northwest (for 16 years) it was autumn. I loved having a house full of guests and family at Thanksgiving. Our decade on Maui led me to love the months of May and October because of the path of the trade winds those months and also the fact that typically those months had the lowest number of tourists, which meant the beaches weren’t crowded and trashed. We’ve lived in southern California for four years now and since we both grew up here, I think we have a familiarity with all the seasons and their slight changes. My absolute favorite days are in January or February when the weather warms to the mid seventies and the skies are perfectly clear and blue. The air is fresh and you can be at the beach and see the snow on the mountains. Gorgeous.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
As low key as possible. I like to do something special with only a few people. This year I went to breakfast at a favorite café in Laguna Beach with my daughter and my sister-in-law. My daughter brought a bouquet of tulips, and my sister-in-law bought the pastries. I love it when women who love each other’s company lean across a table, share stories and laugh. Oh, and the carrot cake my husband had waiting for me at home made the day perfect.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I’ve loved getting caught up on all the seasons of The Chosen. It feels like a series I could watch many times and get something new from it every time. Three years ago, I began co-hosting the Women Worth Knowing podcast with Cheryl Brodersen. We love talking about ordinary women through whom God did extraordinary things. We research and talk about women in history (Harriet Beecher Stowe, for example) and also interview contemporary women in studio. We have over 300 episodes and last year hit #2 on Spotify in our category. I recommend the podcast to listeners who want to learn about other women who trusted God and how they handled the many challenges that come to all of us in some form or another.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Well, I have to say that after choosing to write about a cooking class in Tuscany in “Gelato at the Villa”, I learned a lot about pasta and have tried to find more local places with Italian specialty dishes so I can try things I never ordered before.
What do you do when you have free time?
We have two grandsons who live about half an hour away. They make my heart happy, and we try to see them and their parents as often as we can. Afternoons at the beach with them and a box of tacos from a local taco stand are pretty wonderful.
What can readers expect from you next?
I’m finishing the third book in the Suitcase Sisters collection. I also have a lovely giftbook that just released titled, BY THE SEA. The comments from readers on that little hardback have been warmly enthusiastic. The book is a collection of personal essays, beautiful images and sprinkled with poems and quotes about the ocean and days at the beach.
GELATO AT THE VILLA by Robin Jones Gunn
Grace Rodelle and Claire Panderly have formed a close friendship over their love of reading. After many years and many books that provided merely armchair adventures, the time has come for them to go somewhere instead of only dreaming of someday. Their destination? Italy!
As they travel through Venice, Tuscany, and Florence, history comes alive all around them while unresolved issues in their own personal histories rise to the surface. Immersed in magnificent works of art, scrumptious gelato flavors, and endless pasta variations, they find themselves more vulnerable about sharing their struggles than they ever were at home. As Grace experiences a newfound freedom, Claire wrestles with the foundations of her beliefs.
It takes a special dinner party in followed by an unexpected life-changing moment on the shores of Lake Lugano for Grace and Claire discover they are not just tourists on this planet but pilgrims on a path to becoming who they were created to be.
Bestselling author Robin Jones Gunn whisks you away to experience the incredible landscape, food, people, and culture of Northern Italy alongside two friends who need to be set free before they can experience life to its fullest.
Christian | Women’s Fiction Contemporary [Baker Publishing Group, On Sale: August 19, 2025, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780800744830 / eISBN: 9781493450626]
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About Robin Jones Gunn
ROBIN JONES GUNN is the best-selling author of over 100 books, including the widely popular Christy Miller series and the Suitcase Sisters novels. Three of her Christian fiction books in the Glenbrooke and Sisterchicks series were Christy Award winners. Hallmark created four Christmas movies inspired by her novels. Her non-fiction titles include “Praying for Your Future Husband” co-authored with Tricia Goyer. Sales of her books have tipped over 6.5 million copies sold worldwide. Robin and her husband live in California where the best days are spent at the beach with her grandkids.
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